Saturday Night Live’s Ratings Plummet Nearly 50% – Here’s Why

Saturday Night Live limped into its 47th season this past weekend. The show rearranged a few cast members and brought on some fresh faces, as it usually does. But the show has skittered in the last few seasons, leaning heavily on making fun of conservatives and President Trump to the delight of the liberal left.

But this season, they had no such luck. And the audience noticed. Or, according to the numbers, didn’t notice. SNL lost nearly 50% of its audience.

Here’s a breakdown of the numbers via Fox:

The Season 47 premiere on Oct. 2 pulled in 4.9 million total viewers in comparison to the Season 46 premiere (in 2020) that attracted over 8.2 million viewers, per a Nielsen report. 

When the audience demographic was broken down, “SNL” ratings were down 47% with people between the ages of 25-54 and down 50% with people between the ages of 18-49 compared to the comedy sketch show’s 2020 premiere episode.

Without the show acting as a haven for Trump-bashing, a lot of people tuned out.

Just look at the cold open. The Democrats are in power and SNL can barely make fun of them. There are hardly any jokes here, it is just five people standing their saying lines to the camera without any real acting.

They barely scratch the surface of making fun of Biden and the left, focusing their fire on the moderates.

I know the SNL writers are all liberals, but this is a bit much. They pretty much give AOC a pass for Met Gala fiasco. 

SNL refuses to make fun of liberals with the same ferocity they go after conservatives.

Not since Darrell Hammond’s takedown of philandering Bill Clinton has the show even tried to criticize someone with (D) next to their name.  

Related: ‘SNL’ Cast Members Triggered By Host Elon Musk Will Get Safe Spaces

When SNL Was Funny – For ME

Everyone has a different time in their lives when they feel SNL was the best. Typically, that is around their teenage years.

For me, SNL was at its funniest in the 90s. Norm MacDonald was the Weekend Update host, and you had Chris Farley, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Phil Hartman, Mike Myers, and more: 

I’m sure there are some people who find SNL’s recent brand of middling anti-comedy funny.

But I am not one of them. And that’s OK, maybe I’m too old to get it. 

As an aside, where did all the funny TV shows go?

What passes for “comedy” nowadays is watered-down PC nonsense that seems to only want to make commentary on society without making it funny. Satire is a tricky art form, but lately, it feels like no one has tried to master it.

Thanks to the magic of the Internet I can relive the glory days and soothe myself with comedy that made me laugh today and 20 years ago.

Who remembers Cheri Oteri? What happened to her? She was brilliant on SNL. 

What do you think? Is SNL funny? When was the last time it was funny? Sound off the comments section below.